Machibet777 APP Indians are spending 25% more time on phones

In this year of social distancing, we stayed apart from our friends and families but we came closer to our smartphones, found a study conducted by a smartphone brand. The study showed that post-Covid, we spent an additional 25% time on our smartphones. Almost 89% of users admitted that excessive use of smartphones was reducing the quality time they spent with their loved ones.That smartphones make us addicted to technology and impact our interpersonal communication is an established fact. The study by Vivo underscores how this dependence increased due to Covid-induced lifestyle changes.Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, a technology de-addiction expert in Bengaluru, agreed that smartphone use had increased post-Covid and that it was impacting relationships. “Parents are spending less time with their children, and partners are facing problems being intimate because they are hooked to their screens,” said Sharma, who runs a technology deaddiction clinic at Nimhans. medium79792700The study, ‘Smartphones and their impact on human relationships 2020’, was conducted in eight cities in India with 2,000 respondents. Being isolated for most part of the year, 79% of users said their device helped them stay connected with their family and friends who lived away from them. But ironically it also made them distant from people they were living with. In the study, 70% users also said that mindless use of smartphones affected their relationship with the people they live with — partners, children, parents.Phones remained a continuous presence during meals — 71% users shared that they used smartphones while eating. Since April 2020, out of the total time spent on smartphones, 59% was spent on OTT platforms, 55% on social media and 45% on gaming. medium79791701Demonstrating how dependence on smartphones increased, around two in every seven users thought that it was impossible to continue their daily work for a single moment without their phone. While 46% users picked up their phones at least five times in an hour-long conversation, 84% checked their phones within 15 minutes of waking up.In a review paper published in the journal ‘Perspectives on Psychological Science’, University of Arizona psychology professor David Sbarra and his collaborators examined existing research on interference smartphones can have on face-to-face interactions. The paper cited a study of 143 married women where more than 70% reported that mobile phones frequently interfered in their relationships. medium79791525While smartphones doubled up as our office away from office and a digital platform to meet our friends and family, users in the study also indicated that they had become too dependent on their devices. Eighty-eight per cent said that people point them out for using phones when they are with them. Too much dependence on phones also impacted their mood — 74% admitted to being moody and irritable when not using their phone.boxcontentWhy we cannot stay away from our smartphones?Scientists have explained why we are tempted to pick up our smartphones and start scrolling through social media or text messages at any moment, even when the devices disrupt our face-to-face social interactions.Smartphones have become a constant companion for many of us. In a recent study by the Pew Research Center, nearly 50% of adults reported they “couldn’t live without” their phones. Researchers at the University of Arizona and Wayne State University examined existing research on “technoference”, or the potential interference smartphones and other technologies can have in our faceto-face social interactions.They propose an explanation for why humans are so drawn to their smartphones, even when the devices take us out of the moment in our close relationships.It is because of our evolutionary history and that humans are wired to connect with others, according to the study published in ‘Perspectives on Psychological Science’. In the course of evolutionary history, we have relied on close relationships with small networks of family and friends for survival as individuals and as a species, researchers said. These relationships were based on trust and cooperation, which is built when people disclose personal information about themselves and are responsive to others, they said. Smartphones, and the constant access they provide to text messaging and social media, make it easier than ever for people to disclose personal information and respond to others in their social networks.